Tag Archives: poem

In the pitch black night: Friday Update

27 Friday Oct 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Series, Short Stories, Thorns, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

News:

Finally got the paperback for Puppeteer (Thorns 4) up on Amazon, so I should be able to share my Puppeteer playlist here soon when I get a minute.

My very short story “Sight Unseen” is out now in Novus Monstrum from Dragon’s Roost Press. I’ve written some pretty nasty things in my time, but “Sight Unseen” is what one might call ‘cozy horror.’ The editor’s eleven-year-old niece was a big fan, and I told my parents that this was one they could read. Sometimes I just like to write a nice spooky story. I think a lot of people of my generation who just want to be able to afford a house will really appreciate this one.

“Caregiver” seems to be doing well in advanced reviews for The Book of Queer Saints Volume II, including in this review in Ghouls Magazine. The QS2 ebook is actually available for pre-order now, to be delivered to your Kindle on October 31 for Halloween.

Yesterday, I took part in my first Twitter pitch party, PitDark, which is specifically for horror and horror-adjacent works. I’d witnessed them in the past but hadn’t had a finished project to pitch. It’s not ideal with Twitter as it is now, and due to the fact that it mines tweets for AI use, but I really wanted to give it a shot. Honestly, pitches in general are very similar in structure even when people do them, and I’m not too fussed about AI knowing how to do it, too. It’s the flash poetry I share that’s more of a problem. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that. If I put them in an image, it’s common courtesy to include ALT text, but then the ALT text can be mined… What a minefield.

However, as far as the pitch party goes, I did end up getting some like-requests for both things that I pitched. It’s no guarantee of anything, but it’s still pretty cool to have interest.

In real-life news, I’ve had two physical therapy sessions, and my therapist gave me exercises to do at home to help between sessions. The first session, I had a lot of weakness and resultant pain, but just a week later with the exercises, my strength has improved a lot, and differently than healing without the exercises. I’m out of the boot again and can walk almost normally in shoes. Still struggling barefoot, especially on hard floors, but my legs are definitely in a better state to support the injured muscle, and my gait is a little smoother than it was pre-reinjury. I’ll be back to PT in two weeks, and I have new exercises to do, so we’ll see where we are then.

I also finished another trip around the sun, and I’m closer to forty than I feel I should be. I don’t particularly like birthdays or New Year’s. I’m always so disappointed with where I am. My writing is about all I have to be proud of at any given time. However, regardless of how I feel, I can still enjoy the best doughnuts in the DFW area, have a wonderful birthday dinner and eclair cake, and plan for a pedicure next month (so a broken toenail can heal, no relation to the leg injury).

Works in Progress:

I’m still working on In the Dollhouse We All Wait, hoping to hit 70K tonight. I entered in my last few chapter names, so the end is actually in sight, although I’m still not positive how the last chapter is going to go. I have options, but I’ll probably decide when I get there. I’m still hoping to finish before the end of the month. Before Halloween would be even better, so I can have a short break before hitting NaNoWriMo, when I’m planning to finish two novels, even though I’ll probably have some edits to do in between meeting word counts.

Two novels in November for other name, and maybe two novels in December, for other name and mine? It’ll all depend on the editing demands, really.

However, although I went into it knowing that it would be very extreme horror, I think I’ve decided that ITDWAW is a very ugly story. There’s not even much in the way of humor. I think Question Not My Salt has a little delight to be found, but not Dollhouse. And maybe there’s a place for very ugly stories, but I don’t know how I feel about writing it right now. I want to finish it, no question, especially when I’m so close and the writing is moving smoothly, but I don’t know when I’ll get back to it for edits.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Thorns series playlists
Hannibal playlist

Things I’m Watching:

The Menu
The Exorcist
The Great British Baking Show series
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Scream Queens series
Kitchen Nightmares series
Good Bones series
Helix series

Poem of the Week:

Submerge in slime,
surrounded by gross. A
person can get used to
anything. A rhyming verse
stripped of its second,
taboo of the perverse
becoming normal when no
longer forbidden fruit—
cruelty easier than you
might believe of yourself.

Get out while you can: Friday Update

20 Friday Oct 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Photo by Flora Westbrook on Pexels.com

News:

After the wealth of news last week, there’s not much this one. I received another really nice rejection and a few form rejections. I submitted some more poems, but sub calls are kind of quiet lately.

Brother and my niece are in town, so that’s fun!

Works in Progress:

I’m editing something that was accepted to an anthology with an as-yet-unannounced table of contents, and I continue writing extreme horror novel In the Dollhouse We All Wait. I should hit 40K words tonight. I think it’ll end up around 70-80K words in the end. I slowed down due to vaccinations, a bad period with really bad period cramps, and now with family in town, but I’ll be back to 5K a day starting Monday and should finish the novel by the end of the month. I’m alternating between loving it and hating it, which is pretty typical, and I think once I clean it up in edits in the new year, I’ll like it more.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Unfriended
Haunt
Oculus
Us
Get Out
Jennifer’s Body
Cello
Wishing Stairs
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Scream Queens series
Kitchen Nightmares series
America’s Got Talent series (caught up, WTF with that finale)
Good Bones series

Poem of the Week:

A plague came to the house on Sunday.
It started as fatigue, a slow puddling
faint on the linoleum tile, outstretched
arm reaching for the counter edge or
a phone, but the cat settled next to
the slow, kindling fever drooling from
open mold mouth and dribbling from
mucus-thick nose and eyes and ears.
Wake up from fever dream to fever dream,
condensation on windowpanes from sudden
change in temperature, your hot flashes
their own weather system. Cat left,
too hot and wrinkle-faced against the
smell of you, seeping through pores
and from orifice. Gag, retch, vomit,
shit, a new puddle on the floor.
Burning the wick and melting the fat
from the inside out, fever a fire,
and the day outside sunny and bright.
A plague came to the house on Sunday.

Tasting Salt: Friday Update

13 Friday Oct 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Series, Short Stories, Thorns, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

News:

So I have absolutely wonderful news that I’ve been sitting on until we finalized the contract, but my short novel Question Not My Salt is going to be published in 2024 through the new Crystal Lake Entertainment extreme horror imprint Torrid Waters.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre + Hannibal by way of The Menu, this isn’t just girl dinner—it’s family dinner. Come for Thanksgiving. Stay for the Feast.

Now, this is unflinchingly extreme horror, which means blood, guts, sex, gore, and a bucket full of content warnings, so it’s not for the squeamish. I’ll provide more details as we get closer to the release. But this is my first non-self-published novel through this name (erotic romance is a different kind of business, so what’s written under my other name is not comparable). It still feels surreal that I can say that someone else is publishing my book.

My dense submerged horror story “Arms Race,” finalist in the Crystal Lake Shallow Waters flash fiction contest, was posted on Wednesday. The contest is still going with Boat/Ship/Sub horror, and reading and voting is a lot of fun, worth the $5 tier.

There’s a release party for The Book of Queer Saints Vol 2 on October 30, with live readings. (I’m an alternate.) If you’d like a pre-Halloween celebration, this is a great place to listen to some excellent queer horror.

And of course, as shared in the previous post, Puppeteer (Thorns Book 4), is officially out as an e-book (Amazon, all other vendors). Now’s a great time to get into the Thorns series, because book five is off to its editors and will be coming out May next year for a mid-series conclusion.

No luck with the short story collection or a short story that was shortlisted and rejected right on the margin, both which were really disappointing. I’m still not entirely sure whether I should break up the collection and sell piecemeal or hold it together until the new year. I just submitted one of the poems to a call, so I guess I’ll see. (On a side note, the portfolio I sent has some of the best poems I’ve written, and it’s striking how I’ve improved as a poet. It’s going to be deflating when they’re likely rejected, but *shrugs* such is the job.)

In personal news, I selected a physical therapist, so I’m headed to PT next Monday. I’ve never done PT before—new experience. I’m worried about pain, but hopefully they can help me with my gait once I get out of the support boot again, and I’ll have some real guidance on how to take care of myself, even though I’d hoped to heal on my own (much cheaper). The muscle pain in both legs from a few weeks ago has calmed down. I’m still careful, but at least I’m not despairing. I didn’t realize how bad it was until things got better.

My personal goal of finishing unfinished TV shows continues. I knocked Under the Banner of Heaven and season 1 of Interview with the Vampire off my list, and I’ll continue AHS: Cult next.

Works in Progress:

No rest for the wicked. I finished the Meridian Book 4 edits and submitted it to the publishing house (accepted, since it was part of a series and they get first refusal, but they haven’t refused me yet).

I wrote two short pieces and polished them for submissions.

Now I’m working on my next horror novel, which is even more extreme than QNMS, so I’m intimidated by it and prone to procrastination. Still, I’d like to reach 20K words on In the Dollhouse We All Wait by the end of the weekend. Not sure at this point how long it’s going to be. I’m estimating somewhere in the 70K-word region, but it really could go either way.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate
This World Belongs to Us edited by Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Haunted Mansion ambience music

Things I’m Watching:

Muppet Haunted Mansion
Rob Zombie’s Halloween
The Haunted Mansion (2003)
Interview with the Vampire series (caught up)
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Scream Queens series
Under the Banner of Heaven series (finished)
Kitchen Nightmares series

Poem of the Week:

say you want the healing to begin
but you offer no salve
no salvation
no service administration
you don’t want peace
doesn’t matter if
people are in pieces
as long as it’s
quiet

Pulling Strings: Friday Update

29 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Series, Thorns, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

News:

My story “Footprints” will be streamed through podcast The Other Stories this Saturday on Twitch and uploaded to YouTube. When I have more direct links and the official podcast recording, I’ll post those, too.

Since the MRI, I seem to have re-torn or torn something new, so I’m back in the support boot, getting compensation injuries, and shuffling around, wondering what’s wrong with me. I have an appointment with an orthopedist next Monday. I’m not positive they’ll have answers, but maybe we’ll get on the path to them, or at least on track to healing properly.

After completing Phase 3 of the MCU, I made it my mission to finish other things I’d started. So far, I’ve finished Squid Game and Devil in Ohio, and I’m on my way to finish Nine Perfect Strangers. I hope to finish outstanding thrillers before October so I can start watching more horror-y leftovers.

Works in Progress:

I’m trying not to get too giddy about the short story collection call from Cursed Morsels, which opens up October 1. My horror collection has been ready for two months, so I’m really excited to finally get it out there. If this press doesn’t bite, I’ll give the collection until about February or March before I start trying to sell the parts, with the hope to eventually put the collection out myself. Several presses open up to longer works in January, if I remember correctly.

Puppeteer (Thorns 4) is pretty much finished. I’ve got the interior files ready to go, just need to get the wrap for the paperback done, and I can’t do that until I finalize the back cover copy, which I’d completely forgotten to write. I came up with some verbiage, but I’ll let it sit for a few days to decide whether I like it. Then it’ll be in the works for publication. Less fanfare with this one, even though I’m tremendously proud and scared of it at the same time. It’s the fourth book, so the excitement is really only relevant if you’ve read the first three.

If you’re interested in starting Thorns but you’re unsure about taking on an unfinished series, I just want you to know that the end of Book 5 functions as a mini series conclusion, although there are more books to come after. Book 5 has been sent it out to beta readers and editors. That means that if you start now and finish on book five, you wouldn’t be left hanging. Basically, if I died after Crooked House (Thorns 5) was published and never put out another book, it would be a satisfying end.

I’m now working on my other name‘s Meridian series book 4 edits. Doesn’t look like I’ll finish before the end of the month, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit both the for-fun short novel and novella into October, but we’ll see.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
The First Five Minutes of the Apocalypse edited by Brandon Applegate

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Puppeteer playlist
Lily Kershaw
Ruelle
Hozier’s first album

Things I’m Watching:

The Grudge 2
The Batman
Queer Eye series
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
Outrageous Pumpkins series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series
Squid Game (finished)
Devil in Ohio (finished)
Scream Queens
Nine Perfect Strangers

Poem of the Week:

it takes bravery
to walk the fuck away,
courage to let a strike
fall on my face
without retaliation,
but god help me,
i’m just too weak
while I shatter your
full mouth of teeth
over my linoleum.
if i give you bleach
will you clean the
bloodstain?

Crushed Dreams: Friday Update

22 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Series, Thorns, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Photo by Flora Westbrook on Pexels.com

News:

Still not much to report, although I had several short stories to edit and approve, and I received several rejections.

If you’d like to hear me read an excerpt from “Blackberry Wine” from the Wicked Fae Crow’s Quill issue, go here. It’s very strange hearing my voice, and this was one of my later takes. If I thought my voice could hold out, I would love to go into narration, because I learned to love reading out loud from my parents. They’d read to me and my brother when we were young, and as we got older, my brother and I would read aloud during car trips.

I got my MRI report back, and it doesn’t sound too terrible, but I still need to wait for my doctor to talk with me about it to determine what it means, what questions it answers, and where we go from here. Cross your fingers for no surgery.

Last update, I’d watched Avengers: Infinity War, and as of this update, I’ve finished Phase 3 of the MCU with Avengers: Endgame. It was a serious time commitment, but it was also a great deal of fun. It’s a bit of a relief to have Phase 4 unlocked, at least until I realize they’re starting Phase 5…

Works in Progress:

I’m over halfway through the proofreading pass of Puppeteer (Thorns 4). I’m hoping to finish it by the end of the weekend. Even after all the times I’ve already read it, I’m still finding places to laugh, which is such a genuine delight. I hope my readers enjoy the humor, especially in the darkest of the Thorns novels so far.

After Puppeteer, I’ll send it off to my formatter, then start on the double edit of a Meridian novel from under my other name (erotic horror romance, if you’re looking for even spicier fare, good for Halloween). After I send that off to my editor, I have a choice between two pet projects to write. Either one should be a joy.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard (finished)
Pornography for the End of the World by Brendon Vidito (finished)

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Arcanium playlists
Ambient Halloween music

Things I’m Watching:

Evil Dead
Ant-Man and the Wasp
The Grudge (2020)
Captain Marvel
The Avengers: Endgame
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championships series
America’s Got Talent series
Dr. Pimple Popper series (caught up)
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
Locke & Key series (finished)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series

Poem of the Week:

i don’t understand how a
devil so destructive and wild
could be my sweet obedient child
you couldn’t be more
egregiously wrong
my child skipping merrily along
couldn’t have done
this dastardly deed
like some curly-headed bad seed
take care before you slander
my only daughter
or it’ll be your child next
to the rumor-mill slaughter

False Fall: Friday Update

15 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novelettes/Novellas, Short Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

News:

Nothing of a writerly nature, unless you count a light redesign of the website.

However, as I wrote in a previous entry, I injured my right leg, assumed a grade II tear of the calf muscle. I was progressing all right, with some stumbles on the way, but about three weeks ago I tried using the elliptical machine. I felt okay on the machine, but after, I felt the strain. The healing process regressed, but worse, it didn’t improve much after and there’s consistent over-stress in everything between the ankles and knees.

So I went to the doctor today, and I’m getting an MRI tomorrow to determine what might be going on and how to proceed. My health insurance is basically catastrophe insurance, so I’m paying out of pocket, if you’d like to help. I’m not going to go broke, though, so don’t feel any pressure.

In less grave news, I’m finally buckling down and watching the end of MCU Phase 3. The length of the Avengers movies is prohibitive, but I’m committing to it this weekend. That’ll make proceeding with Phase 4 while working out easier (if I’m ever able to work out again).

Works in Progress:

This last week was something of a pet project week.

I wrote a novelette version of We Follow You in the Dark with more short-story pacing to see if I could write something closer to the original vibe. Because the short version and the long version have the same setting but different characters and outcomes, it’s less like a different version and more like different stories in the same universe. I’m still pursuing publishing the novel, and novelettes are murder to sell. I’m thinking about providing a collection of short story/novelette versions of longer stories, kind of a ‘what might have been,’ because, strangely enough, I happen to have written more than one of these. So they’ll be useful eventually, but for now, it was more of an experiment.

I also wrote a long short story that was supposed to go one way and ended up another, and was definitely supposed to be shorter. It’s too long to sell as a short story and too short to sell as a long story, but it’s weird and erotic and uses some of my for-funsies college subjects. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but it was great fun to explore that world. My wanting to finish it is why I’m writing this so late.

This week, we had a break in the three-digit heat with a delightful false fall, so I worked outside on our porch for most of the week (see the photo above). Tomorrow will probably be the last day I can do that for a few more weeks, but I assure you, the mosquito bites were worth it.

Coming up, I have a short story I need to edit and send back to the editor. Then I’ll be doing my proofreading run of Puppeteer (Thorns 4).

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard
Pornography for the End of the World by Brendon Vidito

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist (it’s that time of year)

Things I’m Watching:

Grave Encounters
Devil
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Wrath of Becky
The Avengers: Infinity War
America’s Got Talent series
Dr. Pimple Popper series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
White Collar series
Locke & Key series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series

Poem of the Week:

You’re looking for my sister, you say?
Well, you just missed her on her way
to the graveyard for our father’s funeral.
Such a yawn, gravestones and funereal
blacks, but someone has to represent
a repressed and resentful family.
She’s the one who stands to gain the least,
so she could not have slain that beast.

This is just my face: Friday Update

08 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Short Stories, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Bloody Ghost meets Thing. It’s good to make new friends.

News:

Because I somehow completely forgot about it last week, here’s the link again for “Of the Many Faces,” a gross and sexy and beautiful story (free to read) about a demon exchanging faces to overcome heartache.

Queer Saints Vol II has its cover reveal, plus the retooled cover for Vol I. They look pretty darn cool.

Other than that, there’s not much going on to announce.

I have, however, received so many rejections in the last week that it was a bit of an emotional beating. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t take rejections personally, but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed. And I like validation as much as the next writer.

Usually, if a rejection particularly hurts, I give myself thirty minutes to feel bad about it, but this week, my emotions just didn’t want to be scheduled. So I took advantage of updating to Windows 11 and didn’t work at all on Wednesday. Sometimes, in doing work I love to do seven days a week, especially work that doesn’t pay well, I forget it’s still work and I need to take a break now and then. I read most of the day while I was locked out of my computer and felt significantly better afterward.

I reminded myself yesterday that I like my writing and psyched myself back up by scrolling through my short story collection I’m submitting in October, which is full of bangers, in my ever-so-objective opinion.

Works in Progress:

I finished We Follow You in the Dark, and it’s now on sub, even though I’m still not sure if it’s too short to be a novel (house styles can differ on word counts). So I’m between significant projects right now.

On a whim, I decided to work on a shorter version of an idea that already turned into a novel. This is not the first time I’ve done this, just to see if it can be scaled down to better match the sheer vibe of the original concept. I’m playing with the idea of eventually compiling a collection of these alternative versions.

After this, I’ll probably tackle a short story that isn’t due for a few months, but it would be nice to have, and I believe a few flash themes will be available, so I can work on that, too.

Then I think I’ll do the last proofreading pass on Puppeteer (Thorns 4) to send to the formatter, which means Puppeteer will probably be released in October.

After starting this trend in August, I’m still producing gothic horror and fantasy lyrical poems every five days or so. It’s exciting to unironically and unself-consciously explore these themes and just sit with the atmosphere in such a beautiful structure. I really like lyrics, even if the verses themselves wouldn’t translate well, perhaps, into song. They’re structured in a way that encourages rhyming, but it’s also flexible, because you can choose your own structure.

I’d kind of like to write a sestina one day, but every time I look up how they’re built, they give examples that don’t follow it, and I get confused, so I’ll keep pushing that back until I understand what’s going on.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard
The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss (finished)
Pornography for the End of the World by Brendon Vidito

Music I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist
Agnes Obel
Billie Eilish
Fleurie
Eurielle
Symphonies by Emily West
Abyss playlist
All I Ever Wanted by Kelly Clarkson

Things I’m Watching:

The Last Exorcism
The Haunting in Connecticut
Wounds
Hell Fest
Turistas
American Monster series
America’s Got Talent series
Dr. Pimple Popper series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
White Collar series
Locke & Key series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series

Poem of the Week:

whiff of smoke and lavender
dried petals and stems strewn
over carved wooden pentagram
pour the wine and steep the milk
with rose hips and cardamom
copper hovers amid ash
blood not from the palm
hydrogen peroxide with bandage
over the safer tough arm
smells like witchcraft in here

Katie Cruel: Friday Update

01 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Photo by Selim u00c7etin on Pexels.com

News:

No writing news this week, actually. We’re kind of between calls, and most of what’s coming out later this year has been announced.

Works in Progress:

It’s a new month, so August calls are done and September calls have begun. I just sent a small slate of pieces where appropriate, and there are a few more calls opening in the next few days I’ll send out, too.

Mostly, I’ve been working on We Follow You in the Dark. I finished the first round of edits and cut about 9K words from the story, so now it’s around 55K, which might be too short to try to sub to agents as a novel, like Question Not My Salt, but I guess we’ll see once I’m finished with second-round edits, which should be today or tomorrow. I was worried I’d have more to do on this second round because of how demanding the first round was, but nope, it’s still just polishing. I’m not complaining.

We Follow is resurrecting all kinds of nineties nostalgia for a shopping mall now dead and gone that meant a lot to me as a kid. It inspired some poetry in the editing process. In addition, my daily Quill & Crow Crow Calls have been inspiring some horror lyrics. They’ll probably get turned into poetry, but I like song structure.

After We Follow, I have a novel under my other name to edit. Then I have a few small-long projects I’m thinking about just buckling down and tackling through some intensive writing months. There’s not much short story writing on my docket except for flash contests, unless a call really inspires me, but we’re heading into spooky season, which tends to bring out more calls.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard
The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss

Music I’m Listening To:

Ruelle
Tina Guo
Lindsey Sterling
Agnes Obel
Buffy the Vampire Slayer score
Neverworld’s End by Xandria
The Heart of Everything by Within Temptation
Mirrorball by Sarah McLachlan
Modern Alchemy by Zayde Wolf
Moulin Rouge albums
No Moment but Now by Wendy Colonna

Things I’m Watching:

America’s Got Talent series
Dr. Pimple Popper series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
White Collar series
The Great British Baking Show: The Professionals series (finished)
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt series
Locke & Key series

Poem of the Week:

these two hands
joined perfect union
tie the satin ribbon
white and pure
around their wrists
bind together
loyalty and love
tighter smooth
insidious dents
burst capillaries
knot again between
clasped fingers
dye the fabric
a deep red
tighter

Demon-Cuddling: Friday Update

25 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

News:

So I got my dates mixed up for The Devil Take You from Sentinel Creatives, which includes my short story “The Plank in Thine Own.” The Kickstarter opened on Monday, so you can get your book through that, plus some great perks if they reach their stretch goals. Sentinel Creatives go out of their way to create immersive experiences, so they do audiobooks and soundtracks, and it’s really pretty neat.

Last month was my first time properly on sub with a novel since my early twenties. I received my first novel rejection this week. It’s not exciting, but it’s all part of the process, and being a part of that process is exciting. I’ll continue to try to shop around with it to appropriate novel/novella calls (there’s a new imprint that looks like a good fit), but because it’s a weird length—novella by some standards and very short novel by others—I don’t know whether it’s a great piece to sub to agents. At the very least, I have it there in my trunk, as needed.

Otherwise, things are pretty quiet on this particular front. I have handfuls of short stories on sub but probably won’t hear back on them until September and October.

Works in Progress:

I finished Crooked House (Thorns 5) edits and sent the most recent draft out to my editors and beta readers.

The next thing on my docket was editing We Follow You in the Dark, a short horror novel set in a haunt experience, but I got spooked (no pun intended), so I edited down a few short stories to gather my courage. But I’m working on We Follow now and about a quarter of the way through.

It’s a more difficult draft. Usually, I’m just paring and cleaning up what’s there in the rough, but for We Follow, I knew by the end of writing it that I needed to move whole sections around, which fudges with my transition bridges. I’ll probably have to fix more in the second round of edits. This book, however, is definitely novel-length by multiple house standards, so it might be in a better position to sub to agents if I can tidy the manuscript changes.

If you’d like to support a writer through a rough edit, buy me a coffee?

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard
The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss

Music I’m Listening To:

Billie Eilish
Fleurie
Svrcina
Jordin Sparks debut album
The Silent Force by Within Temptation
Hide and Seek by The Birthday Massacre
Joanne by Lady Gaga
Live Around the World by Queen with Adam Lambert
Crooked House playlist

Things I’m Watching:

America’s Got Talent series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Murder, She Wrote series
White Collar series
The Great British Baking Show: The Professionals series
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt series
Locke & Key series
The Pope’s Exorcist movie (didn’t like)
M3GAN movie (loved)
Star Trek (2009) movie
The Black Demon movie (didn’t like)

Poem of the Week:

every night I leave the flame
flickering on the porch
there’s nowhere and
no one for miles
i light the lantern
so anyone and anything
may find a way home

Hamstead Heath Horror: Friday Update

18 Friday Aug 2023

Posted by in A Few Thoughts, Novels, Poetry, Series, Short Stories, Thorns, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

News:

My short horror story “A Bug in the Design” was posted yesterday for the Crystal Lake Shallow Waters Flash Fiction Contest, for $5/month patrons. It’s horror grounded in reality rather than supernatural, inspired by one day when I left work on a weekend when my car was the only one in the parking lot and something did not want me anywhere close to my car.

In addition, my humor-horror story “The Cut,” about a baking-karaoke reality show, has been published again in Shallow Waters Vol. 9, which hit first in horror anthologies, so that’s exciting. It’s only 99c, with previous winners from the contest, so it’s got some great pieces.

My medieval story, “The Plank in Thine Own,” about an ambitious monk and his demon experiment, should be coming out today in The Devil Take You, initially through Sentinel Creatives’ Kickstarter, but it doesn’t look like they’ve opened yet. I’ll include the link in next week’s news update.

My family visited my brother and sister-in-law, so we had a great time in Oklahoma with my niblings. I can’t read on car trips anymore because I get carsick, but I can write during them, since I don’t have to read much as I go. I look out at the horizon and make all the typos I need to. It’s a great three-hour stretch of time when I’m not connected to wi-fi, so I can’t do anything but write. Good way to get a story done on the way there and another done on the way back.

Earlier this week, we had a stretch of three days without triple-digit heat where just walking outside didn’t feel like a convection oven. It was strange to go out and think this is so nice about 95 degree weather.

I injured my leg about two months ago, grade II muscle tear in the right calf and a grade I strain on the left, and it’s been a long recovery (for me). But I’ve transitioned out of a support boot into supportive shoes, and now out of the supportive shoes for more barefoot walking through the house. They’re more stressed than I’m used to after long walks, but I can do them as long as I take a break if I get close to a strain. The first time I tried swimming as low-impact exercise in the first month, my leg couldn’t push me back out of the water, so I had to nix that, but now it’s strong enough for swimming. Still not at a point I can go back to my usual workouts, but definite improvement. I keep telling myself to be patient, or I’ll reinjure and have to wait even longer.

Works in Progress:

Finished my latest patch of short stories over the weekend with the help of the car trips. Generally, for longer pieces I ask myself if I can use the pieces for something else of my own. I have a list of short story collections that I’m slowly building either for self-publishing or for collection calls, but there’s no hurry on most of them, since they have stories in them that need to wait for exclusive rights to clear before I can reprint anyway.

However, for flash contests, I love trying new things and going in more random directions. They only take an hour or two of my time, so it’s a nice exercise, both to write these stories and then to trim them down to their most fundamental elements. I’ve discovered that all this short story work has improved my editing of longer works, too.

I’m on the second edit of Crooked House (Thorns 5) now, and it’s so much easier than second rounds used to be. The way the edits worked before was round one was macro edits, lots of cutting and rearranging and getting rid of my crutches, then round two would be micro edits. But I’m getting more of the micro edits done in the first round, so second round so far has been more of a polish. My editors are going to have plenty of things to change, of course, but in terms of my work, it’s cool that I notice marked improvement.

Books I’m Reading:

IT by Stephen King
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard

Music I’m Listening To:

Dark ambient music
Miranda Lambert
Taylor Swift
Ruelle
Puppeteer (Thorns 4) playlist
Blacklist playlist

Things I’m Watching:

America’s Got Talent series
CSI series
CSI:Miami series
Not Dead Yet series (caught up)
Murder She Wrote series
White Collar series
Count of Monte Cristo movie

Poem of the Week:

put me under the knife
sophisticated barbarism

barbers used to be dentists
surgeons used to be butchers

small dog energy life
in hands and between blades

clambering for the pedestal
afraid the table will tilt

don’t need but want so hard
stomach pinches through muscle

it’s a horror show in here
I will pay dearly to be victim